RESOLVE is designed to help twentysomethings understand and apply Biblical principles of finance. Will Ertel is a CFP(R), CPA and Certified Kingdom Advisor with 25 years experience as a fee-only financial planner. Will was inspired to write RESOLVE as he watched his three children 'leave the nest'. RESOLVE includes five essential exhortations to help young adults (or anyone serious about Biblical financial stewardship) find success in their stewardship journey. The author is an elder in a PCA church in Matthews, NC.
RESOLVE starts with Biblical principles but also includes practical advice to help young people implement steps toward stewardship success.
I like the intro to each chapter. Each chapter begins with the start of a story or illustration. The story is concluded at the end of each chapter. The imagery for each story is meant to provide an easy way to remember a main take away from each chapter.
My Dad (“Boppy” to his grandchildren in their twenties) was quite a distance runner back in the day. He won first place overall in several local road races and completed multiple marathons. While I was in high school, Boppy set a goal to run at least one mile every day and did so for 995 straight days.
Running one mile, for a reasonably healthy person, is not that hard. Running at least one mile a day, every day, takes incredible resolve. Have you ever done anything for 995 days in a row? Boppy was very committed, and he did not let any obstacle get in his way. Rainy days, snowy days, cold days, days he didn’t feel well, travel days – nothing deterred him. We tend to find all kinds of reasons to explain why something can’t get done. For 995 days in a row, Boppy gave no excuses and ran at least one mile every day!
Next, picture my mother-in-law (“Grammy” to her grandchildren in their twenties) fixing dinner at Thanksgiving. She set the expectation that dinner would be served at 5 PM. She intended to serve dinner at 5 PM, and she worked very hard to do it. Invariably, with eighteen loved ones in the house and about fifteen separate dishes to prepare, we usually had our dinner after 5 PM.
Grammy worked incredibly hard to serve last Thanksgiving’s dinner at 5 PM. This posed a dilemma for Grammy because, while she valued the goal of eating at 5 PM, she also valued getting everyone’s drink order just right (with or without ice), helping the youngest get a taste of the fruit salad before everyone else, and using the microwave to warm the empty dinner plates for Grandaddy. Ultimately, her ‘goal’ to care for her family triumphed over serving dinner at precisely 5 PM. She wanted to reach her goal of 5 PM, and she made great efforts to reach it, but she ultimately had to choose between competing priorities; a delicious meal was eaten just after 5 PM.
The final image to picture is me eating a second helping of chips from my favorite Mexican restaurant. They are so good, and they have a seemingly magical ability to soften the hard edges of even the hardest day. They are an escape. Picture me enjoying these chips as I proclaim, “I want to lose 15 pounds!”
My recurring resolution to lose weight has often fallen victim to tortilla chips. In fact, you might remember me making the same resolution last year (and the year before that), but that was five “free-entrees-through-the-loyalty-program” ago. The noble goal of losing weight has often been a sincerely desired outcome, but it was not a priority that frequently dictated my behavior to change. In that sense, it was not really a goal at all– though I may have used that word. It was really just a wish. I wish I could lose weight while still eating the types and quantities of food I want.
So, you have Boppy’s resolve to run one mile a day dictating decisions in almost every aspect of his daily and weekly schedule for almost three years. You have Grammy who wanted to serve dinner at 5 PM, but she made other decisions along the way that revealed that she valued other things too. She worked hard to get dinner served at 5 PM, but not at all costs. Finally, you have me proclaiming one thing is very important but simultaneously being unwilling to follow through on any sacrifices required to accomplish the ultimate goal.
Going forward, you can use these three images as a reference for how you want to approach your goals. The approach will reveal the type of conviction you have regarding the goal. Some of your goals may be ‘1-mile-a-day’ goals, some may be ‘Eat-at-5-PM’ goals, and others will be ‘Tortilla Chip’ goals. You may immediately identify with all three of these types. They may each fit an area of your life – and you might be able to identify some financial goals that fit into one or more.
If you don’t intentionally identify any goals, you will still prioritize your spending. That is, you will still choose to spend or save for some things over others every day and every month. You will likely be reactionary and will not make coordinated progress toward any particular longer-term goals. This may not lead to deep regret down the road, but your fifty-year-old self will likely wonder why you did not make faster progress.
The sooner you can identify your '1-mile-a-day' and your ‘Eat-at-5-PM’ goals, the better. Timing means so very much, as we will discuss next.